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Skink wrote:samlan, I hope you had your coach contact the tournament director (or did so yourself) with a thank-you to that particular ES, then, as I'm sure it'd be very appreciated.

I personally thanked her at awards- she gave my partner and I our medals.

The Fossils test at Regionals this year was very easy. I initially planned to post about it in Poorly Run Event Stories since it was insanely easy, but I realized that I actually really liked the way it was set up. The event leader set up several stations with fossils that we had to identify and they were all listed on the back (along with several others to trip you up). One of the few things I didn't like about Entomology was that with IDing it was sometimes hard to figure out which answer they wanted. Having them listed on the back was very helpful, even if it did make it really easy. We could also move amongst the stations at our own pace which my partner and I both really liked as it removed a lot of the stress. He also had a variety of samples ranging from actual fossils to stuffed animals. He didn't mind us picking them up and playing with them which led to my partner attacking me with dinosaur toys and making me kiss a stuffed animal crustacean. It was fun which is something I think is lost sometimes at competitions. Sure the test should be hard, but, at the end of the day, you are doing Science Olympiad for fun so it should be fun.

There is no Idaho state regional competition, so the only competition I ever get to attend is the state tournament once a year (and Nationals last year). Being said, there are also sadly not very good tests at the Idaho State Competitions- as my 6th grade year the Anatomy test was 20 questions long.

However, last year the fossils test was run amazingly, with every station having real specimens. I got to see everything from Mucrospirifer to Orthoceras. It was a blast! There were typically 3-4 questions accompanying each fossil, and while you were on a strict time schedule, you had 3 minutes per station, so I didn't feel like it was a competition to see who could go the fastest.

It was just an event that was ran so well!

I absolutely loved the fossil test at Regionals! 2 minutes per station, 20 stations. Somewhat easy, but it had everything from trilobites ( ) to Lagerstattes to Gymnosperms. It was a fun and fast-paced test, well written.

I like the stations for like invasives or fossils, if you prepared well it kind of feels more like a scavenger hunt through your binder rather then a nerve racking competition.

At regionals today, the Forensics proctor keenly noticed that while students cannot burn plastic, she could technically do it under a fume hood. So what did she do? Burn PVC, among other things!

I love proctors who find good loopholes like that.

Robot Arm at Regionals this Saturday was one of the smoother-run events that I participated in, thanks bernard! I always appreciate when an event supervisor for a build event is able to answer all my questions and seems to know the rules pretty well, it really can make a big difference

This is about a year late, but I just wanted to recognize Gene Hau (I think this is his name; maybe he'll even see this), who ran Crave the Wave at the 2015 UT regional. I think he said it was his first time writing a Division B test, and it was one of the most fun tests I had ever taken. I especially liked how he had a java program tell people when to move stations and how he made different programs for stations with filters.

All in all, it was a great test and was a ton of fun to take

The New York state test was the best. The proctor was overly nice and supplied the test takers with real fossils from his own collection. 80% of the stations had real specimens. He also used plastic dinosaur toys as a station as well. Couldn't stop laughing.

watermydoing14 wrote:Robot Arm at Regionals this Saturday was one of the smoother-run events that I participated in, thanks bernard! :P I always appreciate when an event supervisor for a build event is able to answer all my questions and seems to know the rules pretty well, it really can make a big difference

Thanks, watermydoing14, I had so much fun running it! Though according to my assistants I'm intimidating when I'm vocal with scoring...
"No points for pencils, as they are not fully supported by Goal Cartons."